Is ict still an important issue for proceedings

1st Kenya eDairy Conference, 2010Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

Is ICT Adoption for Agriculture still

an Important Issue? (Dairy - An innovation case study)

Ehud Gelb

Center for Agricultural Economic Research

Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in

Science and Technologies

gelb@agri.huji.ac.il

Major Goals

Review issues and options for ICT adoption in Dairy/Agriculture

Elicit Ideas to take home

Precision Agriculture 1991 Perspective

2010- 2014 ICT supports three major dairy domains

• National/International programs (policies, standards, tracability, coherence,

training , funding) • Local/Regional collaboration

(training, standards, funding,profit) • Production/Processing units

sustainabiliy, standards, income, coherence

1st Kenya eDairy Conference

• In Kenya the dairy industry is the most advanced of the livestock subsectors.

• Kenya's dairy industry is dominated by smallholders with over 75% of the industry's total output.

• Four Major issues: Financing; training, tracability, processing oversupply

http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/ILRI/x5485E/x5485e0o.htm

CIA: Agriculture 75% of the labor force, 20% GDP

Regarding all the three domains What is ICT facilitating today?

• Doing the same BUT more efficiently• Integrating more partners, faster, Connectivity• Integrating more parameters - over time,

horizontally, vertically (F2F), rural communities• Finds, evaluates, transfers, manages, integrates

and defines data/information/knowledge from and to scientists and end users

• Provides innovative technologies and methods• Automatic decision making (are they better

decisions?)• Establishes (and eliminates) “Digital Divides”

(ICT) innovation in rural areas is now not only a “computer issue”

or a “farmer” and dairy/agricultural production concern.

A traditional milking unit

Earliest visible Mastitis detection

Afimilk ICT information system

Earlier Mastitis detection via E/C

ICT E/C Monitoring Benefits

Afimilk Group(191 Cows)

Control Group(193 Cows)

Significance

Milk Yield(Kg/lactation)

(305 DIM)10690 10317 P<0.05

Avg. Loss in Milk productionPer Infection (Kg)

44.8 65.1 P<0.05

Prevented Milk Loss (Kg) per Cow/Lactation

383 --- ---

Questionnaire summary: Is ICT Innovation Adoption for Agriculture still an Important Issue?

Montpellier2001

Wageningen 2009

Is ICT Adoption still a problem? 53.2% 90.3%

Factors Limiting ICT Adoption

TrainingCostUnperceived benefit

20%32.3% 27.6%

58%29.0%25.8%

Should public funds help to finance Information Technology Services for farmers

67.8% 82.2%

Farm Computer Usage and OwnershipUnited States 1997 - 2009

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Computer Access

Own or Lease

Use for FarmBusiness

Internet Access

Percent of Farms

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

All 3: Where to put the Money

easy to reach

What do they need?

Are Dairy ICT Innovation

Challenges Unique?

Is ICT adoption in Agriculture/Dairy Evolution or Intentional Design?

• Are rural ICT agri-business issues special;

• Is ICT Adoption different than adopting other Technologies and/or innovations;

• Are both of public interest and/or funding;

• Who are the “agents of change”;

• See the roles of Community (village, farmer organization), economic viability, agricultural production, gender, politics, entrepreneurship, etc

General Innovation Adoption Issues

• Still learning some of the earlier lessons• Despite developments in technology the

uptake of ICT has largely plateaued • Disparities within the digital divide is not

going away• Access to ICT is not enough – e.g. a large

proportion of non-users of the internet reside in connected households.

• ICT innovations are a tool and not an end.

People Issues• ICT is not just about technology it is about People• Listen, listen, listen and understand• Innovation adoption must have effective support

of the rural and agricultural communities • ICTs will not necessarily change the lifestyles of

the rural communities. They might introduce new methods of doing the established activities

• Strong leadership from the village/community is essential for the success of any ICT innovation adoption project

People issues – Digital Exclusion• There is a demonstrable correlation between

social and digital exclusion• A significant proportion of the digitally excluded

are at risk of deepening exclusion• Digital exclusion is also unlikely to disappear

over time through demographic developments• Need to start from understanding the case for

digital inclusion – the link with social inclusion• Digital exclusion is unlikely to be adequately

addressed in isolation from other policy areas. • Penetration by market forces is unlikely to

eliminate digital exclusion.

ICT Reality Today:

Top-down Outside-in

“The fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid – . Eradicating poverty Through Profits” (C.K.Prahalad – Wharton School Publishing,2004)

References• Measuring the benefit of a computer in the milking parlor:

http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-measuring-7.pdf

• NOA - A Management Information System for the National Dairy and Beef Herdshttp://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-noa.pdf

• ICT in the Dairy Farm systemhttp://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-farming-6.pdf

• ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html

• Gelb, E., Kislev, Y., 1982. “Farmers' Financing of Agricultural Research in Israel”. Research Policy, 11, 321.

• USDA 2009 - Farm Computer Usage and Ownership http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/mannUsda/viewDocumentinfo.do?documentID=1062

• Israel Dairy Board http://www.pagegangster.com/p/gKIfb

THANK YOU

The

International Dairy

Federation

and the

Israel Dairy Board

Welcome you to the

2014 World Dairy

Summit

in Israel